americanbeauty - Lydia Mulero Making Moral Decisions...

Lydia Mulero Making Moral Decisions Professor Hoyt American Beauty and the Allegory of the Cave The movie America Beauty was director Sam Mendes’ film debut. It was an immediate success and is regarded as one of the most pertinent and intellectual popular movies of our time. Mendes touched on some very deep issues that plague our society, and relays them with a very clear perception of America. The movie can be directly related to issues discussed in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The main issue discussed in both book and movie is one of Man’s deceptive existence in this world. In American Beauty , Lester Burnham is a middle-aged husband and father. When we meet him, he is a depressed loser with a dead end job, a cheating wife, and a daughter who hates him. He goes through his days with no dreams or hopes for the future, but also no idea that things could be different. He assumes that everyone lives in this kind of dreary life-style and expects nothing more. This is also the beginning of Plato’s allegory.

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